Russia: We expect Egypt to sign aviation security agreement ahead flights resumption

An aviation security agreement between Russia and Egypt has been prepared, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich, announced today. He added that Moscow awaits the Egyptian authorities to sign it.

Speaking to the state-run Russia Today (RT), Dvorkovich said: “Initially, we said that there should be a security agreement,” stressing “it has been prepared.”

“I believe that Egypt is ready to sign it, otherwise the discussion would not have resumed,” he added.

The Russian transport minister, Maxim Sopkolov, said earlier that the regular flights between Moscow and Cairo would resume in mid-February.

Read: Russia agrees to resume commercial flights to Egypt

On 4 January, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree on resuming flights between Russia and Egypt after a two-year-long halt of air traffic. He noted that the flights will resume first to Cairo International Airport and “gradually will gradually resume to the other airports in the country’s touristic Red Sea resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada.”

Russia halted charter flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resort cities after an Airbus A321 plane flying to St. Petersburg crashed soon after taking off from Sharm El-Sheikh last October. All 224 people aboard died as a result of what was classified by the investigation as a “terrorist attack.”